Lack of Connection Between Canonical and the Community

[Alan Pope]

Hi,

On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Scott Kitterman <ubuntu at kitterman.com> wrote:
> Isn't this what Launchpad karma was supposed to be about (the problem being
> there's so much that's not in Launchpad)?
>

Indeed. Launchpad Karma was one motivator for me back when I first
started contributing to Ubuntu. Back in ~2006-2008 I spent a huge
amount of time answering questions in "Launchpad Answers". Not being a
developer it was a great way for me to contribute to the project.
Getting a few "Internet Points" for doing so fun, and at one point for
some time I had more 'Karma' in Launchpad than any one else -
including all the most active developers in the project. (This may
have been due to skewed points allocated for answers over other
things, but I don't care about that)

https://answers.launchpad.net/~popey/+questions?batch=75&direction=backwards&start=825

I paid my own way to my first UDS in Sevilla, Spain. During one of the
intro sessions I was called out by kiko and got a round of applause
for my (albeit small) contribution and for achieving more karma than
anyone else. This was a great welcome to the community for me, getting
recognition from people who actually "worked" on the project for the
tiny contribution I'd made really made me feel like my little effort
was worthwhile, and help to motivate me to continue.

Similarly I also had fun contributing to askubuntu when the site first
kicked off.

Some may say that gamifying open source software contributions and
giving virtual points or badges to contributors is childish or
unnecessary, but from my perspective it helped reinforce my personal
thoughts about the project and made me want to continue to do so.

Just my 2p :)

Cheers,
-- 
Alan Pope
Community Manager

Canonical - Product Strategy
+44 (0) 7973 620 164
alan.pope at canonical.com
http://ubuntu.com/